tenant

• tenaunt (obsolete)
• tennant (obsolete)
• tennaunt (obsolete)

[1325] Borrowed from Anglo-Norman tenaunt, from Old French tenant, present participle of tenir (“to hold”), from Latin tenēre, present active infinitive of teneō (“hold, keep”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛ.nənt/, enPR: tĕnənt
• Rhymes: -ɛnənt

tenant (plural tenants)

1. One who pays a fee (rent) in return for the use of land, buildings, or other property owned by others.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Arthur Morrison, The Thing in the Upper Room‎:

     Long even before the last tenant had occupied it, the room had been regarded with fear and aversion, and the end of that last tenant had in no way lightened the gloom that hung about the place.

   • 1982, “The Sitting Room”, in The Sitting Room, performed by Anne Clark:

     You are just a tenant here, you say / Living in and out of this life / As cheaply as you can

2. One who has possession of any place; a dweller; an occupant.
   • Cowper

     sweet tenants of this grove

   • Cowley

     the happy tenant of your shade

   • Byron

     the sister tenants of the middle deep

3. (law) One who holds a property by any kind of right, including ownership.
4. (computing) Any of a number of customers serviced through the same instance of an application.

• lessee
• renter
• rentee

• tenet

tenant (third-person singular simple present tenants, present participle tenanting, simple past and past participle tenanted)

1. To hold as, or be, a tenant.
2. (transitive) To inhabit.
   • Sir Walter Scott

     His thin legs tenanted a pair of gambadoes fastened at the side with rusty clasps.

tenant

1. Misconstruction of tenet

• Annett

From English tenant, borrowed from Anglo-Norman tenaunt, from Old French tenant, present participle of tenir (“to hold”), from Latin tenēre, present active infinitive of teneō (“hold, keep”). Doublet of tener and tinidor.

• Hyphenation: te‧nant

tenant

1. a tenant; one who pays a fee (rent) in return for the use of land, buildings, or other property owned by others
2. one who has possession of any place; a dweller; an occupant
3. (law) one who holds a property by any kind of right, including ownership

Present participle of tenir. From Old French tenant; corresponding to Latin tenens, tenentem.

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tenant

1. present participle of tenir

• lieutenant

• entant

• tenaunt (Anglo-Norman, noun, adjective, verb)

From the verb tenir (“to hold; to possess”); corresponding to Latin tenens, tenentem.

tenant m (oblique plural tenanz or tenantz, nominative singular tenanz or tenantz, nominative plural tenant)

1. holder
2. possessor (of land or property); tenant

tenant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular tenant or tenante)

1. holder; owner (attributively)
2. sticky; adhesive
3. strong (of an object, etc.)

tenant

1. present participle of tenir

• English: tenant (borrowed)
• French: tenant

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (tenant)
• tenant on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub